Iran's former nuclear negotiator, a cleric, has said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government is encouraging superstitious practices.

The remarks have intensified the debate over the return of the Shia saviour, the 12th Imam known as the Mehdi.

Since Mr Ahmadinejad came to power he has repeatedly spoken of the need to plan for the Mehdi's imminent return.

(my bold)

Now when a cleric in a hard line religious country berates you because you are "encouraging superstition" something is seriously out of kilter.

The idea of someone disappearing thousands of years ago but who may come back to save the world from injustice at a time of his choosing was just tooooo much for the cleric to take in - I mean, who would believe that?

Good stuff. I always wonder about Christianity and homosexuality - I thought that the old laws "died with Christ", thereby making bum-fun OK for Christians. After JC's appearance in the New Testament, I thought only Paul got huffy about man-love. Do Christians even know if man-love is now OK or not? They must get confused...

Keep Libel Laws out of Science

About Me

Who I am is largely irrelevant, and indeed so are most of my thoughts.
Nonetheless, it winds me up that I am supposed to swallow half-truths and untruths relating to scientific claims emanating directly from media sources and indirectly from people who haven't a clue what they're talking about.
Look, you've got me started.
(You can email me at thinkingisdangerousblog AT googlemail DOT com.)